Virginia Vignettes

Virginia women, many of whom “wished they were a man,” assisted the cause of rebellion. Manpower shortages forced them to take over plantations and assume jobs as nurses, government clerks, and factory workers. Women served as spies, knit socks and sewed clothing for soldiers, made soap, and sacrificed for the war effort by limiting entertainment [...]

Not many! An unmarried, divorced, or widowed woman possessed a legal personality as feme sole and was solely responsible for her affairs. She could own titles and sign contracts and wills. On the other hand, a married woman was under the cover of her husband’s authority as feme covert and had few property rights. Land she brought to the [...]

Brafferton was the College of William and Mary’s school for American Indians, after Harvard likely the second oldest in British North America. The College’s 1693 charter provided that the new “place of universal study” educate not only English but also American Indian youth. College founder James Blair arranged financing using income from Brafferton Manor in [...]

Although the College of William and Mary had been chartered in 1693, it was competition among the Protestant churches in the 18th and 19th centuries that contributed to advances in higher education in Virginia. Each denomination had to have a college, primarily for the instruction of its ministers. Following the lead of the Presbyterians, who [...]

The Morrill Land-Grant Act transformed American education, establishing what became a network of state-run colleges and universities combining practical and academic teaching. Two Virginia universities owe their beginnings to it, and a third benefited as well. Proposed by Rep. Justin Morrill (Vermont), it passed Congress in 1859 but President Buchanan vetoed it. Enacted in 1862 [...]

With no statewide public education system before the Civil War, the Underwood Constitution of 1868 mandated public schools. Over the objections of the traditionalists, one of whom labeled universal education a “Yankee error,” the new system was created in 1870 with enthusiastic support from freedpeople, poor whites, and middle-class groups, the very people for whom there [...]

Defeat left Robert E. Lee penniless and without a home. He became president of struggling Washington College in Lexington and proved to be an able educator. He revamped the curriculum—adding practical subjects such as engineering and journalism to the traditional classical studies—attracted funding, and increased discipline. And in the meantime, he publicly counseled southerners to [...]

One of Robert E. Lee’s greatest victories was at Chancellorsville (1863), but he complained that “our loss was severe, and again we had gained not an inch of ground and the enemy could not be pursued.” He risked his scarce resources in large and costly battles because he hoped to destroy the enemy’s army—or to [...]

In settling the Arlington estate of his father-in-law, George Washington Parke Custis, in 1857, Robert E. Lee confronted the political reality of slavery. He disliked the institution—more from its inefficiency than from its moral repugnance—yet defended it throughout his life. Custis, however, had liberated his slaves in a messy will that stipulated they be released [...]

Robert E. Lee was known by all three, actually. Born Robert Edward Lee at Stratford in Westmoreland County, he was called Robert or Bob by his family and friends, while signing his letters “R. E. Lee.” In fact, he never used the moniker “Robert E. Lee” to refer to himself, but the newspapers did, and [...]